Review: Christmas Camp by Karen Schaler
“You know what they say, life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”
The Basics
Title: Christmas Camp (Christmas Camp #1)
Author: Karen Schaler
Published: 2018
Publisher: William Morrow — HarperCollins
Pages: 346
Format: Paperback
Genres: Fiction —Contemporary fiction, Holiday, Romance, Contemporary romance, Holiday romance, Clean romance
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Book Synopsis
Advertising executive and workaholic, Haley Hanson, has never been that into Christmas. She typically spends the holiday meeting with clients in the Caribbean. When her boss, however, insinuates that she’ll make partner if she can sign on a Christmas toy company, she’ll do anything to make that happen – even if it means first proving her Christmas spirit to her boss by attending Christmas Camp at the rural Holly Peak Inn. Haley is determined to complete the Christmas boot camp as quickly as possible so that she can return to her job, but her plan hits a snag when she arrives at the inn and meets the owner’s attractive son, Jeff. As she gets to know both Jeff and the other Christmas Camp attendees, she finds herself less eager to leave the Holly Peak Inn, and as she works her way through all of the Christmas Camp activities, she begins to rediscover the magic of Christmas.
My Review & Overall Thoughts
TLDR: Is this book corny as all get out? Absolutely, but that’s part of the charm of this light, easy-to-read holiday romance.
Okay, okay, I know that my book synopsis was a tad corny, especially the final sentence, but I did that intentionally in order to capture the corny spirit of Christmas Camp. This book is a Hallmark Channel movie-to-book conversion, and it certainly reads like one. Like any good Hallmark story, it has a slightly silly storyline that features cheesy dialogue, romance, sappy moments, and a happy ending. This cornball nature of the book, however, is what makes it so enjoyable – you can’t help but laugh at its silliness.
The whole concept of a Christmas Camp is laughable, and some of the activities that the Christmas Campers complete in this book are just plain ludicrous. For instance, in one scene, the characters trek into the mountains to cut down their own trees, and miraculously, they all manage to find appropriately sized Christmas trees. As someone who has gone hiking throughout New England, I can attest that the majority of trees that you come across are far too large to fit into a house – that is, unless you are trying to find a tree à la Christmas Vacation. And then there are the daily adjectives, such as “joy” and “merry,” that the inn owner, Ben, writes on a chalkboard each day to indicate the theme of the day’s activities – talk about corny. This book certainly provided me with plenty of laughs and eye-rolling moments.
As far as the characters go, none of them were super fleshed out. The majority of secondary characters felt like fillers; they were there to add bodies to a room but didn’t contribute much to the overall story. For instance, if you removed Susie and Ian from the book, there would be no real change to the plot. The same goes for John and his children. To be fair though, this book is intended to be a light, fluff read, so I’m not too surprised that the characters were somewhat superficial.
The dialogue, on the other hand, was a bit cringeworthy, even for a fluff read. The interactions among the characters, especially John and co., were reminiscent of something out of a 1950s sitcom. You know, that Leave It to Beaver-type moment where everyone is overly chipper and behaving in an exaggerated manner while canned laughter plays in the background. The story, particularly the romance between Haley and Jeff, was entertaining enough though to allow me to look past the unnatural conversations.
The good
This book is a nice companion to the movie, as it delves a bit deeper into the characters’ backstories and has scenes that were not included in the movie. It is also a quick, easy read; it’s the type of book you can read without having to fully concentrate (i.e., great before-bed or commuting read).
Overall
I probably won’t ever read this book again, but I did enjoy it more than I didn’t. As long as you approach this book with the same lowered expectations that you would a Hallmark movie and embrace its corniness, you too will enjoy it.
Have you read Christmas Camp? If so, what did you think? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below!
